By Josh Robertson

Copyright abc

The Northern Territory’s top environmental regulator has taken a new side job with a mining company, amid calls that he quit over integrity concerns sparked by a gas leak “scandal”.

NT Environment Protection Authority chair Paul Vogel, who faced scrutiny over his paid role with lobbyists for a company with a stake in the Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas plant (DLNG), has become a “strategic adviser” to a miner with interests in the NT.

Mr Vogel did not disclose his consultancy work for the lobbyist, despite being involved in key decisions about the DLNG, where a major methane leak was kept secret from the public for almost 20 years until it was revealed by the ABC this month.

Santos has been cleared to use the plant for its controversial new Barossa gas project without fixing the leak, in what environmentalists and federal crossbenchers say is a national scandal.

The revelation of the long-running, hidden leak also came shortly before a Middle East oil giant dropped a $30 billion takeover bid for Santos.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company did not respond to questions earlier this month from the ABC about the leak — but it and its partners were reportedly taken by surprise by the development.

Integrity expert Geoffrey Watson has said he thought it “very inappropriate” for a regulator to work at the same time for industry.

Mr Vogel has denied a conflict of interest, saying he had never advised companies regulated by the NT EPA, and last worked for the industry lobbyist 18 months ago.

On Tuesday, bauxite miner VBX Limited announced it had engaged Mr Vogel directly to advise on its Wuudagu project in Western Australia “in relation to the approvals pathway, coherence of environmental assessment documentation and stakeholder engagement”.

The company has also applied for mining exploration licences on the NT’s ecologically sensitive Melville Island.

Kirsty Howey, the executive director of the Environment Centre NT, said the “revelation that [Mr] Vogel has a paid role with a mining company that has interests in the Northern Territory is deeply concerning”.

“We want to be clear — this is about institutional integrity. The perception of a conflict of interest is as important as an actual conflict.”

Ms Howey said that Mr Watson, as “Australia’s top integrity expert has warned that regulators should not be placed in positions where they advise those being regulated, as this undermines the fundamental principle of regulatory independence”.

She said that the “Darwin LNG scandal has exposed deep fault lines in the way the resources sector is regulated in this country”, with “trust in the system … at rock bottom here in the [NT]”.

“It’s crucial that [Mr] Vogel step aside so that people living in the Northern Territory can have some faith that our regulators are independent and will take appropriate action to protect our health, climate and environment.”

Regulator to ‘recuse myself from any discussions’ about miner

Following questions from the ABC, Mr Vogel said he had “requested that the NT EPA’s register of interests be updated following yesterday’s announcement”.

He said that “should any matter relating to VBX Ltd require consideration by the NT EPA, I will recuse myself from any discussions and decisions”.

NT Opposition Leader Selena Uibo said the “latest revelation casts serious doubt over the independence of the EPA chair, who Territorians expect to be completely above reproach”.

“Territorians deserve confidence that environmental regulation is strong, independent and transparent.

“It’s now on the CLP to demonstrate their integrity and show how they will restore trust in the EPA.”

A spokesperson for the NT Country Liberal Party government declined to comment.

Calls for Canberra to step in on Darwin leak

There had already been calls for Mr Vogel to resign from his position as chair of the NT EPA when his undisclosed ties to the Darwin gas plant shareholders were revealed last week.

The federal Greens Environment spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said it was “untenable for a regulator chair to have been moonlighting” with an industry lobbyist.

The NT EPA has said that fixing the methane leak is a “commercial matter” for the operator Santos, whose environmental licence at DLNG is due to expire today.

Victorian Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May last week wrote to federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres calling for the Albanese government to step in to force the leak to be fixed.

She said that the government had indicated it was “sufficient to leave the task with the NT EPA”.

But Ms Hodgins-May called for the federal government to appoint an “independent assessor to perform the job that the EPA is clearly too conflicted to perform adequately in relation to the Darwin LNG facility”.